To live fully you must learn to welcome and embrace change. Resistance to change won’t kill you, but it will keep you from becoming the person you are meant to be and will cause friction as you try to realize your vision for your business.

The very thought of change creates fear. We want comfort and certainty, even if it means sacrificing the remarkable experiences that wait around every bend on the adventure.

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States and there are grown men and women in every corner of this great country for whom the entire day will be ruined if they do not eat the exact food, prepared in the exact same way, as every year since they were born.

You’ll find this in business as well. Think about all the times you do something or handle something in a way that you really don’t understand other than the fact that you always do it this way.

Know this, change allows you tread the path you were born to follow and feelings of resistance and fear are nothing more than signals that you are on the right path. The more you fear a certain form of change the more you should rush, headlong in, to embrace it.

Here’s what I think change is:

Change is opportunity – I make my living embracing change because there are those that count on me to make sense of it for them. Every new tool, network and marketing subtlety provides fuel for business opportunity if you can come to view it this way rather than a hurdle to overcome.

Change is energy – Few things are more exhilarating than uncertainty. Even something as simple as trying new foods, taking new routes to familiar places and seeking out new people to engage, can deliver a shot of the kind of fresh energy that snaps you out of the routine and helps you appreciate being present.

Change is growth – In order to make progress in business and life you must be willing to leave one part of yourself behind in favor of change. Little growth occurs in the known. It is only when you push yourself through the fear and are willing to allow yourself to be really, really bad at something that true growth can occur.

Change is possibility – Part of the problem with change is that we don’t know what will happen on the other end. We don’t know if we will be the same person, we don’t know if our friends will still like us, we don’t know if we’ll be thought of as a fool. But, all possibility for living the life we are here to live lies on the other side – all possibility comes from detaching from the fear and inviting change.

Change is purpose – Purpose and passion don’t just happen. They are essential elements of a fully alive person and a fully alive business, but they are works in progress. Connecting with a higher purpose that drives your day to day actions is not something you find in a workshop. It must be given the opportunity to evolve as you discover opportunity, find what creates energy, leave the past behind and open the doors to possibility.